Cranes by means of which loads can be raised and loaded are often provided on watercraft for civil or military uses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,459 B2 discloses a watercraft having a crane for loading pieces of equipment. The crane has a tower which is arranged on the main deck of the watercraft and a boom which can rotate with respect to the tower.
Such watercraft have the disadvantage that owing to the crane which projects high above the main deck they have a relatively large radar cross section and therefore their location can be determined relatively easily by radar systems. However, in particular in the case of military watercraft it is desired that the watercraft has a small radar cross section (RCS) so that the probability of discovery by enemy radar devices is reduced.